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Proggy

Using gvim with gtk2, I had a problem installing Proggy Clean. I couldn't get the pcf font registered by freetype/fontconfig. The result was that I could select Proggy Clean via "xfontsel", but not with the gtk2 font selector. A gtk build probably would have worked.

Anyway, the ttf font works fine. Just copy ProggyCleanTT.ttf to ~/.fonts and run "fc-cache" once. This should work on every Unix system with fontconfig installed.

Then start gvim and and choose the font, or insert this in your .gvimrc:

set guifont=ProggyCleanTT\ 12

The 12pt size is necessary for a good look. On OS X, you need to set 16pt.

If you use ProggyCleanTT in gvim and the top of the font looks like garbage, with missing pieces, it is because you have the new freetype hinting turned on. Proggy is not hinted properly.

Neep

It differentiates between a zero and the letter "O" and looks really nice. I use it for programming on a 1600x1200 screen.

On Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install xfonts-jmk

On Gentoo: emerge x11fonts-jmk

Once you have installed the font you should put a line like this in your .gvimrc file:

set guifont=Neep\ 18

You may also need to enable bitmap fonts and rebuild the font cache. On Ubuntu:

rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf
fc-cache -f -v

zevv-peep

I've been using Neep, but the characters are too small on a new laptop with a high resolution screen (1920x1200 at 15.4"). Zevv-peep is a variation on Neep for hires screens. X11 (Linux) and Windows variants are available at
http://zevv.nl/play/code/zevv-neep/

Design considerations

Clean, avoid clutter.

Very clear distinction between similar characters like 0 O o and i I l 1 |.

UW ttyp0

UW ttyp0 is a free bitmap font family with about 3000 Unicode characters, including a number of stylistic variants that can be selected at installation time (plain, dotted or slashed zeroes, straight or curly quotes, visible or invisble NBSP, etc.). Sizes range from 6x11 to 11x22 px in regular and bold; for some sizes there is also an italic version. Currently only BDF/PCF (the X11 bitmap format) is supported; if you need another format, you'll have to convert it yourself. (I won't comment on the quality; as the author I'm obviously biased :-)

Adobe Source Code Pro

Source Sans is a set of monospaced OpenType fonts that have been designed to work well coding environments. This family of fonts is a complementary design to the Source Sans family.
Open Font License 1.1 (OFL 1.1)

Droid Sans Mono is pretty nice. Bold and italic text are the same size as normal text which is nice for some colorschemes. Your Linux distro may provide this font or you can get it from google. Modified versions with dotted zero and slashed zero can be found at http://www.cosmix.org/software.